Requisite

They say I was lost at sea.

Lies.

I lost at sea, lost my ship,

lost my men, lost so many

battles with Poseidon.

You’ve heard those songs,

perhaps joined in the chorus

after the heroic deeds were painted

with a poet’s words,

lyres

accompanying my tale,

my story

never told true. The wind

so much more than moving air—

the breath of gods, eternal exhales,

sufficient to blow a ship

to shores of goddesses,

beaches now and forever

tainted with grief,

love abandoned for the quest,

the return, the journey of a lifetime,

those sun-soaked days in the sand

now spending goddess gaze on the sea,

searching for the ship that will

never come. Only women know

how to be islands, sacred sands

weeping into the sea

all because of me, hiatus hallowed,

respite from the battles for my life,

my fighting spirit subdued

in the lamentations, the bitter tears

of divinity rejected.

O, my goddesses of sea and sand,

flora and fauna,

weaving your stories into mine.

Cruel Zeus condemning the

hearts of these flowers

to grow unplucked, petals

withering away from the stem.

The cursed gods forcing choice,

allowing one return.

No map can deliver me back

to the shores that found me

reeking of mortal blood and sweat,

tears of the goddess salting my wounds,

heart heavy, weighted down

with divine love

I cannot return.